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About Just out. (Portland, OR) 1983-2013 | View Entire Issue (Feb. 1, 1991)
• ▼ Fe b ru ary I M I ▼ Juat out Jiist news Urgent action needed England's first NGLTF targets crackdown on Soviet gays Queen dubs first openly gay knight by Rex Wockner by Rex Wockner his apartment. Government newspapers blamed he National Gay and Lesbian Task the murder on a jealous teenaged lover. MGLU Force has sent what it calls “ a series blamed it on the KGB. o f hard-hitting com m uniques” to •In the past year, MGLU activists have been government officials in Leningrad, beaten by police during AIDS demonstrations, Moscow and Washington, condemn MGLU ing the recent increased harassment o f Soviet gay documents were stolen from Kalinin’s apartment, activists were taken into custody as activists and demanding intervention by Soviet ACT UP/Chicago members delivered condoms and American authorities. to them, the KGB demanded that MGLU cease The news o f escalating police and bureau publishing it’s newspaper, Tema, and police vio cratic attacks on the Soviet gay movement was lently raided a gay cafe in the Black Sea resort of reported in the Jan. Just Out. The crackdown has Sochi. included: Several members o f Congress have joined •In mid-December, Moscow Gay and Lesbian NGLTF in responding to reports of the escalat Union founder Roman Kalinin and other activists ing crackdown on the Soviet Union’s fledgling were summoned to police headquarters where gay movem ent, sending telegram s to the their finances were scrutinized. Moscow and Leningrad City Councils. NGLTF •The same week, police visited K alinin’s is also lobbying Amnesty International to inter parents and ordered them to silence him. vene in the crisis. •At the same time, Kalinin was evicted from NGLTF and the International Lesbian and his apartment because of his political activities. Gay Association urge protest telegrams to (1) •Meanwhile, Olga Zhuk, a Leningrad lesbian The Commission for Social and Political Organi leader, was charged with violation o f the male- zations, dom 6, Isakovskaya Ploshad, Lensovet, sodomy law when she tried to register the city’s Leningrad, USSR. (2) Mr. Gavriil Popov, Moss- new gay group with the City Council. The ovet, Moscow, USSR. Telegrams are necessary charges were later dropped. Lesbian sex is not because the mail is too slow. illegal in the USSR. Zhuk says police subse Copies of all telegrams and letters should be quently harassed her on the street and stole her sent to (1) John Healey, Executive Director, organization’s papers from her apartment. Amnesty Intcmational-USA, 322 8th Ave., New •A short time earlier, in November, Moscow York, NY 10001. (2) International Secretariat, gay activist Alexander Lukcshev, publisher of Amnesty International, 1 Easton St., London the independent democratic newspaper New Life, WC1X 8DJ, England. was brutally murdered and his body set on fire in T IS YOUR PET PAR I OP TIIE FAMILY? Tender, loving care for the furry and Dr. Patricia E. Huff, D.V.M. Dr. D eborah Sheaffer, D.V.M. 2 5 1 9 E. BURNSIDE, PORTLAND CALL 233-5001 FREE CONSULTATION. Thinking of a city or country setting, or is it time to sell? Let’s meet and discuss your needs. Being in sales since 1977, I’m an expert on all the current information available in the real estate market. For a down to earth, flexible, no hype approach, give me a call. 1 want vour business! Bridgetown Realty Kathy Tysinger Member of Portland M illion [dollar C lu b Work (503) 287-9370 Home (503 ) 287-1523 amed Shakespearean actor Ian McKel- lan, who is openly gay, was knighted on New Y ear’s Eve by B ritain’s Queen Elizabeth II. F British gay and lesbian activists were shocked at the news, coming as it did in the midst of a rapidly deteriorating atmosphere for the gay movement (see World Briefs: England). McKellen was chosen for the honor by for mer Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher’s admini stration shortly before she left office. Knights are selected because of their service to the coun try, pre-eminence in the arts or, sometimes, be cause of political connections. The response from the gay community has been mixed. Filmmaker Derek Jarman, who is openly gay and an open person with AIDS, wrote an article for the Guardian, a major daily news paper, saying that McKellen should reject his knighthood because the Tory administration that bestowed it is anti-gay. The next day, 18 gay and lesbian actors, di rectors, producers, playwrights and others-only seven o f whom were previously out of the closet-wrote a letter to the Guardian, mass-out ing themselves. The group called McKellen’s knighthood “a significant landmark in the history of the British Gay Movement.” “Never again will public figures be able to claim that they have to keep secret their homo sexuality in fear of it damaging their careers,” the group wrote. “Ian McKellen provides an inspi ration to us all, not only as an artist of extraordi nary gifts, but as a public figure of remarkable honesty and dignity.” McKellen is currently on a world tour, per forming Shakespeare’s King Lear and Richard 111 . world briefs BRAZIL: The Costa Rican gay newspaper Confidencial reports that the county of Rio de Janeiro has banned discrimination based on sex ual orientation. Reports say Brazil faces an epi demic of anti-gay murders and that transvestites are required to carry official ID ’s confirming their choice to dress as women. CANADA: The Ontario government Jan. 1 extended life, medical and dental insurance to lovers of gay/lesbian provincial employees-a first for Canada. At the same time, officials announced plans to alter provincial laws and the Ontario Human Rights Act so that the definition o f “family” includes gay/lesbian partners; this would extend benefits into the civil sector. And, the gay city councilors in Montreal and Vancouver, Raymond Blain and Gordon Price, were both re-elected in Nov., Go Info said. CHILE: The group Ayuquelén is organizing Chile s first lesbian conference, according to Confidencial. Spokeswoman Lilian Inostroza said. We re going to organize our conference—to break the isolation and get together with our sis ters who are working in the interior of the na tion." COSTA RICA: Police have stepped up har assment of gay bars in this peaceful Central American nation. The bar raids coincide with the birth of the nation’s first gay newspaper, Confi dencial, but there is no immediate evidence that the events are related. The emerging gay and lesbian community in San Jose, the capital, has also announced plans for the country’s first gay- pride parade this June. "The event will be an nounced to the international press so that they will be present to secure our physical safety ” reported Confidencial. ENGLAND: A judge effectively criminal ized all sadomasochistic sex. even among con senting adults in their own homes, sending 15 gay men to prison for up to four-and-one-half years each after Scotland Yard confiscated homemade S/M-sex videos from their homes. •The new Crim inal Justice Bill, currently working its way through parliament, will punish men caught having sex in public lavatories and similar places with penalties equal to those for rape. •New foster-parenting guidelines from the Department of Health state that “equal rights and gay rights have no place in fostering services.” NEW ZEA LA N D : An AGN-McNair sur vey of 1,786 voters found that 75 percent believe discrimination based on sexual orientation should be illegal. NORW AY: O slo’s Gay Health Committee has installed bird feeders full o f condoms in the recreation areas o f Lake Sognsvann and Huk Woods-home to a popular nude beach. Another dispenser was hung at Hercules, the gay sauna. “They have to be refilled every day,” said spokesman Geir Lindal. (Fritt From) SOUTH A FR IC A : The African National Congress has included a gay-rights law in its draft bill o f rights for the new South African constitution. The ANC is one o f the nation’s largest black political parties, headed by anti-apartheid leader Nelson Mandela. The move followed heavy lobbying from Cape Town’s Organisation o f Lesbian and Gay Activists. “We are very excited and consider this a major victory for the lesbian and gay move ment," said OLGA spokesman Derrick Fine. THAILAND: The W orld Health Organiza tion pulled out o f a major AIDS conference in Bangkok in late December in protest of a Thai law that denies travel visas to persons with AIDS. Compiled by Rex Wockner